Bloodied Sun
by BlakDawn
Summary: When Raven is invited back to Azarath, in celebration of her defeating Trigon, she discovers that she may have changed the Universe in more ways than one
1. Chapter 1

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos" Raven intoned , feeling her body levitate off the bed while she dived into her subconscious, metaphorically speaking, in reality she was allowing her 'excess' emotion to be projected onto the meta-physical plane, they just so happened to be all images of herself, a testament to the intense training she had received, as an untrained meditator would only ever get a feeling of the emotion, like a cloud of emotion that simply drained away, or possibly an image of the thing or person that they associated with a particular emotion. It was an incredibly difficult task, first she would drain her 'easier' emotions, these being the ones she felt rarely and thus, would have less 'pull' or power, these being love, impatience and joy. She would then concentrate on her 'subdued' emotions, if it was possible to subdue an emotion, as these would submit easily and so their power would drain rapidly, these emotions being sadness, wisdom, knowledge and guilt. With this more balanced state of mind she could then focus on the more difficult emotions, ones that she felt often or felt strongly, as these would have lots of power and 'pull', making it difficult to release the energy without her concentration and emotional balance failing, these were happiness, rude, timid and brave. Finally she got to her most difficult emotions, ones that held such tremendous power that she had to maintain perfect concentration and emotional balance, in order to do this she had to drop most of her psychic barriers in order to concentrate on holding them in the meta-physical plane, these emotions were rage, pain and hate.

Once she had drained them, she refortified her mind and analysed her emotions carefully, adding and taking away power from them in order that they have the same 'pull' as each other, an imbalance would be catastrophic if she released her grip on her emotions at any time.

Once she had drained her emotions she reviewed the time between now and the previous meditation, analysing it from every angle, whether it was going with Starfire to the mall, or battling the hive five, she had work out her emotional responses to various stimuli, and from that apply it to new situations in order that she might have a better chance of maintaining emotional balance in any situation, such a thing was impossible, but it made her feel better if she knew she had done everything in her power to contain her emotions, no matter what.

today, for example, she was reviewing her visit to Azarath, she watched herself as she opened the seal, and the scene froze, frowning she tried to restart the memory, just like a CD-ROM, her memory would occasionally 'glitch', this was usually when an emotion either gained or lost power rapidly, meaning her memory couldn't cope with the two versions running side by side without 'compiling' them, in computer terms. When it still refused to start she grew worried, her mental fortifications were not up to scratch, but no super-vilain in jump, or California for that matter, could match her mental skills, the the only type of person that could have entered so quietly and efficiently was another Azarathian.

Just as she though that her vision went blank, and several terrifying moments later a women stepped out of the inky blackness, raven's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the white Azarathian garb

"Arella..." she didn't speak the words but they boomed across her mind scape, it was definitely Arella, but she looked different form when she last saw her, she still wore the traditional garb of a middle class women, but she appeared...worn, tired. When Arella heard her name she smiled softly and flipped of her hood, it was definitely the Arella she knew

"Raven, there you are, I've been searching all over for you" her mind iced over instantly, and as this was her mind it reflected what she felt, the temperature dropped to sub-zero levels in less than a second

"I meant the earth, silly, not your mind" Arella walked over to Raven, embracing her in hug

"it's been so long" she whispered as she hugged her fiercely, matching Starfire's painful hugs-o'-death (to quote Beastboy), Raven hugged her back gingerly, not really comfortable with such a gesture. After several seconds Arella removed herself from Raven and stood back up.

"I didn't just come here for a family reunion, I have a message for you, from the senate" she cleared her throat and withdrew a scroll, waxed shut with the seal of the senate high council

"findor, excellium, astartium; Raven Roth, of the house of most noble Azar, Greetings from the Senate and peoples of Azarath.

We hope this message finds you in good health and family.

We are pleased to announce that in celebration of your defeat of Trigon, we have organised a celebration to be held in your honour across Azarath space, we would be well pleased if you could attend the central celebration at Azarath, Transportation has been arranged aboard our newest carrier, the _Hope_.

We hope that you may be able to attend our celebrations, which will be in approximately four earth weeks.

Noruk, Kund, Loka; Raven Roth, of the house of most noble Azar

On behalf of the Senate and Peoples of Azarath

Chancellor Velas" Raven looked at Arella for a few moments, searching her eyes, Arella shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the intense look on her daughters face, finally she responded

"yes, but only if I can bring my four friends, without them, I would never have defeated him" Arella could only nod and embraced her daughter again

"yes, of course, be ready in a week and I'll pick you up"

"if you don't mind I'll have the message, to explain to my leader" Arella nodded and gave her the message, slowly Arella faded from her mind, leaving behind the image of her unlocking the seal of Azarath.

And one very big problem.


	2. Chapter 2

Raven returned to her body slowly, while she could return to full control in several seconds it was effectively dumping a bucket of cold water, not something she wanted to do, instead she almost leisurely resumed control, until she was fully in control, once she had she cast her mind out, looking for the familiar psychic waves of robin, which to her mind were coloured a dull red, not literally, but colours were how her mind represented the various emotional states of people. She found him in the training room, as usual, she got up and took the letter with her.

She hurried down the stairs, not bothering with the lift, until she reached a larger than normal metal door, it opened automatically as she approached, and she found herself in the clinically clean training room. Most of the equipment had been put away in the storage rooms that surrounded the room, to her left was robin, punching and kicking a training dummy, she approached noticing the power that he put into his moves, the poor dummy looked ready to burst, she also noted he was sweating heavily, indicating he had been at it a while. He had noticed her as once she had stopped he finished with a massive right hook, all but knocking the dummies head off

"Hi, raven, did you want to use it" he panted, collapsing in a carefully positioned chair, she shook her head and waited until he had his breath back

"Robin, do you remember Arella" he frowned slightly, she could hear the cogs turning in his brain

"wasn't she your mother?" She nodded

"well, I was meditating when Arella appeared and told me that all of Azarath was to hold a massive celebration in my honour for defeating Trigon, the senate, that's the government, has asked me to be guest of honour" Robin nodded, he was already seeing one of the issues Raven had "I agreed, on the condition that the rest of us should attend as well" Robin broke in at that point

"Why did you say that, we might have been able to hold the fort while you were gone, but but"

"I haven;t finished yet, in the letter it says they are picking us up in a carrier, the problem is, is that Azarath as I left it was still, technologically, in the medieval period" Robin frowned, his brain trying to put the pieces together

"but that was only 3-4 years ago at most, how could they have advanced so far"

"that's what is worrying me, which is why I need your help so we can put the pieces together, I have a feeling there is more to this than technological innovation" robin nodded in agreement

"can I have a look at the letter?" she handed it to him, he opened it and read the entire thing, his eyes almost a blur, just ten or so secods later he handed ther letter back

"What's 'findor, excellium, astartium'?" he quoted the beginning of the latter

"in formal letters it is put much like you would put 'dear sir/madam', it's a quote from Azar it means something along the lines of 'finding yourself is the beginning of excellence'" he nodded at the explanation

"well, since you'v ealready agreed, it seems like we don;t have much choice, we'll tell the rest of the team"

"what about jump city, I don;t know how long these celebrations are going on for"

"I'll call some honorary titan's, don't worry" Raven frowned internally, robin wasn't one to say 'don't worry' but he probably meant for it to calm her down. She refolded the letter and then followed robin out of the training room.


	3. Chapter 3

Review replies:

to anonymous reviewer one: no, though I have seen some fic's doing the same general thing, of Raven and co. going to Azarath etc. if you do think you've seen it before could you send me a link? Because ripping of someone else's idea is not my cup of tea.

Less than a minute, thanks to the towers fast and efficient lift system they walked into the main room, in front of them was the massive screen showing two cars on a race track, both of them neck and neck, on the couch Cyborg and Beastboy looked like men possessed, both of them leaning forward as far as possible, the entire scene was eerily silent, instead of hurling insults and put-downs at each other they concentrated on the race, from the small mini-map to the top corner of the screen it was evident they had almost finished the race, out of the corner of her eye raven spotted robin looking around for Starfire, eventually he realised she wasn't in the room, and took out his communicator, he pressed some buttons on the touch screen before speaking

"Star, where are you?" fortunately there was no static on the communicators due to some techno-wizardry by cyborg

"yes friend robin" Starfire's almost impossibly happy voice rang over the tinny speaker, and due to the lack of sound in the main room, the room as well

"are you busy Star, because there is something I need to talk to everyone about"

"not at all friend robin, I shall be in the main room A-SAP" the week before she had seen a military movie, _death: the coldest friend_, and had heard one of the soldiers say 'A-SAP', one she found out what it meant she had not stopped using it

"thanks Star" he cut the communication and returned the communicator to its normal place, then he turned his attention to Cyborg and Beastboy, who were still neck and neck, despite the weird and fantastical weaponry they used on each other

"guys, I need to speak to the team, so once you've finished that race turn it off" in response he got a vague nod form both of them, obviously both were immersed in the game. Raven almost immediately walked over to the small kitchen area, opened the fridge and poured herself an orange juice, much like her tea the oranges were specialist, blood red oranges, which made for a blood red juice, still in a hurry it was almost as good as a cup of tea, she idly drank it waiting for starfire to appear.

Just a minute later Starfire appeared, barely floating off the ground, she zipped over to robin

"what is the problem friend robin?"

"nothing Star, I just want to talk to everyone about something" by this point Cyborg and Beastboy had finished the race and were waiting, quite impatiently

"come on rob, spill it, what's this something"

"well, Raven has received a letter from her government, inviting her back to Azarath for a celebration of her defeating Trigon, she agreed, as long as we go with her, the problem is that Azarath has what we would consider medieval technology, or at least, it did, when Raven left, it now has carriers and we presume a space fleet, putting it on par, at least technologically, with the Gordanians, what we need to do is work out why and how, and if it's a problem how to fix it"

"two questions, when do we leave and how long for?" Cyborg spoke up, raven felt quite relieved Robin had talked to everyone, she was never any good at public speaking even to her friends

"we leave in a week, and we don't actually know, pack ofr at least a month, if not more" cyborg and Beastboy looked at each other

"dude!"

"booyah, month holiday here I come" they raced each other out of the room, Raven rolled her eyes and walked back to her room, mentally practising all of the various greetings and honorariums she would undoubtedly have to teach the rest of her team.


	4. Chapter 4

The week that followed was filled with organisation, packing and cleaning, as the tower had accumulated a large amount of rubbish in the years it had been inhabited, Raven concentrated on the problem of Azarath's miraculous technological advancement, while robin began calling in favours left and right with the various honorary titans. Th other three were left in the dark, mostly, raven felt that they deserved a little break without having to worry constantly, of course she would inform them if it became necessary.

The five honorary titans; Panther, Herald, Jericho, Kole and Gnarrk and Argent arrived in dribs and drabs, with the final Titan, Jericho, arriving only on the day they were due to depart. In true Robin style he had made files on each villain they were likely to face including video and pictures, he had also made sure everything in the tower was perfect, Raven heard him muttering something about 'Alfred' whoever or whatever that was, as he did it, finally the DIY team was assembled and the original titans were ready, they had informed the Watchtower of the carrier, but even they were not ready for the sheer size of the _Hope _as it exited hyperspace, it was easily 20 km long and 4 km across. Raven communicated with the _Hope _from the tower organising the meeting point, which would be the roof of the tower.

So at 2:00 the titans stood on the roof, above them the watched a small craft descend from the main craft, a landing vehicle of some sort, it landed fairly quickly, thankfully the roof was large enough to hold it, but it was a tight fit. Below the craft and between the legs supporting it came the ramp, just like in any sci-fi movie ever, the lighting however was rather dim and the titans had no trouble seeing the three occupants, one was, two were in some form of military jump suit, next over was Arella still in traditional garb, Arella walked down the ramp calmly while the other two remained in the ship, Arella embraced her daughter gathering her up in a hug, Raven for her part was quite embarrassed

"Arella, could you please release me?" Arella winced like she had been stung but pulled away

"is this your team?" Arella asked after a moment, Raven nodded

"this is Robin, Starfire, Beastboy and Cyborg" she pointed to them in turn

"it's wonderful to meet you all, have you got all your luggage? Toothbrushes? Combs?" she began like any mother would asking if they had this that or the other, all of them were quite taken aback, and nodded along

"right well, this is the captain" she gestured at the man to the left "captain Kenon and his astro-nav officer Kenon" Raven saw Robin shoot her a questioning glance, and his mental state was quite curious

"well come aboard, we're on a tight schedule" they all followed her, carrying their assortment of luggage into them ship. Once they were settled they felt the ship lift off, unsurprisingly the ride was sublime, to say the least, with barely a hint of turbulence as they ascended

"err...roger that, commencing to dock 8, standby rec-crew" Raven dimly heard the captain, or so she presumed as neither officer had talked, air space control, or the Azarathian equivalent, squawked back, though it was too quite for her to make out

"confirmed, bringing her round on final approach" they were quite for several minutes but Raven felt the subtle shift as they turned around moving in for the final approach

"dock doors are open, sir, we've been cleared to land" this voice was slightly higher than the other, and from the 'Sir' she could only presume it was the astro-nav officer

"bring her in nice and steady" they glided into the massive bay, the familiar Azarathian architecture given a surprisingly modern look, they landed with only a small bang and a hiss form pneumatics in the system

"dock doors are closed" Arella appeared from around a corner

"we've landed, get your stuff and lets get out, oh, silly me, do you have an electronic equipment on your body?" they all nodded

"can you remove them, we have to do a quarantine check and disinfection before your allowed onto the ship" she looked at Cyborg, due to the problem of half his body being electronic "I think we'll just have to be careful, sorry" Cyborg looked helpless while the team disembarked.

The dock was surprisingly small, barely taller than the the tower, though about 600 metres across most of this was taken up by strike craft storage, the transport had landed between two fearsome looking craft that had either just come in or just going out, in front of them was a central tower that overlooked the entire dock, the glass was heavily tinted, but raven suspected it served as some form of air traffic control, moving down a welcoming committee had already began talking to Arella and the flight crew, they were just out of earshot, but it was likely that some sort of problem had occurred from the rather angry emotions that came of their soul selves. Arella led them into a small room, though she pulled Cyborg off into an adjacent room, as soon as they had closed the door Raven felt the humidity in the room increase considerably, within half a minute she was sweating like a pig, then water, or what she presumed was water, began pouring down from ceiling through concealed pipes, it sprayed out catching them all, after an intense and quite hot 2 minutes the water stopped and what raven could only compare to an intense tumble dry session occurred, by the end all of them were thoroughly dry and only slightly worse for wear, finally the room was flooded with an eerie pinkish green light for several seconds, then a female voice emitted from concealed speakers

"disinfection: complete, no anomalous biotic's detected, all clear" the door pneumatically hissed open revealing Arella and two guards, behind them, and towering over, was cyborg who looked relatively happy, they followed Arella through the bowels of the ship, with Beast Boy ribbing Cyborg about something or other, she didn't deign to listen, in fact aside from that the entire party was quite subdued even Starfire who could be relied upon to be asking questions or trying to make friends.

To Raven the journey seemed to take hours, though if this was because the journey did take hours, or the fact that they were going through all but identical corridors, with all but identical personnel, she wasn't sure. Either way he was relieved when they reached room 22/0086, as Arella slowed and opened the door. the two guards remained outside, inside she saw several officers all sitting around a table, they all watched as the titans moved inside, taking seats and settling down

"hello, titans, I am captain Cebur of the carrier _Hope_, this is my first officer Azar" he gestured to the man on his right "and my chief of staff lieutenant Junko. This meeting has been organised so that we can give you current information about Azarath, as we appreciate you have not been to Azarath in four years" he picked up a large dossier and opened it "I believe you already know the new chairman of the senate, the current Azar is the 36th a Verkoi Azar, no new families, though several smaller clans are petitioning for acceptance. Now our flight plan, we will leave earth's aero-space tonight at 8pm, and arrive at Azarath's main dock in approximately 6 days, in the mean time Arella will show you to your rooms, your luggage should be already inside, any questions"

" yes, how long will these celebrations last?" raven's monotone was a change compared to the over enthusiastic captain's starfire-esque voice

"they should last around 3 and a half earth weeks and then another 6 day trip back to earth, anything else?" nobody said anything

"good, well I'll let you go, I'm sure you all need a rest" he stood, quickly followed by his chief of staff and fist officer, they walked out of the room, then Arella stood and gestured that they all followed her, they did and found themselves going through a maze of corridors that raven had trouble remembering, finally they were in a more 'homely' corridor, instead of plate metal grey the colours sued were a dullish yellow and blue, Arella turned to them all

"inside you will find a computer terminal, if you need anything just press the talk button and select 'Arella' ok?" they all nodded so she carried on pointing them to their separate rooms, with ravens being the last, Arella turned to her, but rather than open the door she turned to face her daughter

"Raven, I know we don't see eye to eye, but I just want to say how proud I am of you, and that some day you might be able to forgive me"

"maybe, Arel...mother" Raven stopped herself from calling her Arella, she was her only family, unless Trigon had sired other offspring, even if she couldn't forgive Arella she should at least learn to get along. Arella, for her part gasped and gathered up her daughter in another hug not letting go for several seconds, it was only when she released Raven that she realised she was crying

"you...you don;t know how much that means to me Raven" it was then that Raven realised with a jolt that that was the first time she had called Arella 'mother'. With a new spring in her step Arella turned and disappeared down another corridor, leaving Raven to enter her room

the inside was Spartan, to say the least, the room had been finished like the corridor, dull yellow and blue, to one side was a bed and a small table, just in front of her bed was all her luggage, and on the other was the computer terminal, at the back and the side was what she suspected was the en-suite bathroom, a quick check revealed a shower and a toilet, and little else, except for a small machine mounted on the wall, form the graphics and tiny writing below she deduced it was a hand cleaner, she experimentally stuck her hand in, much like the decontamination room it increased the humidity, poured fairly hot water and then dried her hands, leaving them incredibly clean.

With exploration of her room complete she settled down and began meditating, calming her emotions, some of which, Happy, Timid and surprisingly Love, had become quite powerful, which was surprising until she explored her memories, she then realised that her experience with Arella had been more emotionally charged than she had thought, though in her defence she hadn't really that much experience in dealing with family or Arella's small speech in the corridor.

AN my longest chapter, for those that asked for a longer chapter here it is, also, for anyone spotting some similarities politically with tough times in jump city, on worries I asked the author 'TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne' and there alright with it.


	5. Chapter 5

After unpacking Raven had slept for several hours, she hadn't realised how tired she was until she lay down, she had only been woken by a nervous knock on her door, she sighed and slide out of bed, putting her leotard back on and opening the door, she knew it wasn't a titan, all of them had distinctive knocks, from Starfire's fairly gentle knocks to cyborgs earth shattering bangs, in the doorway was what appeared to be a maid of some sort, she was dressed in a maids uniform of some sort, she held a small trolley next to her

"Miss raven?" she sounded so scared, as if raven was some conquering tyrant

"yes?" Raven tried to be nice, but the combination of monotone and 'just got out of bed' made the maid even more scared

"I...I have your dinner, Miss Raven, roast rump steak of a Kolbar with vegetables and a chocolate soufflé to finish. The Jerom is a 879 Guium" Raven was actually more impressed with the girls English skills rather than the meal, so she gave being nice another try

"thanks, sorry what was your name?" the girl blushed, apparently caught off guard

"Jennina, miss, of house Azar" Raven tried to smile, though the best she could manage was a twitch

"Thanks, Jennina, it sounds lovely" Jennina smiled, and for the first time Raven realised why the girl was so nervous, a cult of celebrity may have been nurtured, something Raven hadn't expected.

She moved to the side to allow Jennina to put down her meal on a fold out Table, she quickly pulled out a chair and generally set the place, including a nicely folded napkin, as she moved back Raven caught her

"Thank you again, Jennina, but err...you didn't need to do it" Raven didn't know how to respond to someone doing all of that, Jennina for her part merely half smiled, also unused to this sort of talk, so raven let her go as the door slide shut Raven reflected that this wouldn't be the last time she would have to deal with that form of behaviour. As she sat down she realised that maybe gong to Azarath wasn't the best idea.

The Kolbar rump steak was delicious, and though she had never had it as a child, she had heard many sayings related to it's dryness, though her vegetables and the darkish sauce did alleviate the the dryness. Her soufflé, a dish raven had never even heard of during her time in Azarath, was fairly good, though she suspected that an earth chef with enough experience could do better. Raven had had little experience with Jerom, which was the Azarathian equivalent of wine, though much thicker and darker in overall colour, But as she tasted the tiny amount she had poured she realised that she was supposed to have it with her rump steak, it almost instantly soothed her dry throat, she greedily had another full glass full. She then put down the glass unusually satisfied with her meal, she had been expecting cold, grey military rations, not something from a Michelin star restaurant.

She looked at the clock on the computer, it was only 35:43, she stopped and had to remember how to convert earth hours to Azarathian hours, in earth hours it would be about 8:15, so she decided to meditate, a usually calming experience that managed to make her even more nervous, she imagined speaking to to the assembly or worse a crowd of people and stumbling, or mixing up her words and any number of horrifying things. In an effort to not think about Azarath she decided to educate her fellow titans in the political system of Azarath, at least what it had been, so that they would at least have a basic understanding of what was happening.

Just by the way of a warning the next chapter will contain a lot of exposition concerning the political systems on Azarath, it might be boring, but for the rest of the story to make sense it must be done.

Update: I will make it into two chapters, the first is basic stuff and the second any questions you might have, on any part of Azarath so please ask and I will do my best to answer them.


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